Many Buryat narratives from the modern era center on rivalry between Buryat shamans and Buddhist lamas, particularly on matters of mind control, environmental manipulation, and social drama. The shamans would soar through the air on drums, sneak out of felt tents through the skylights, subsist on fire, and assume the forms of rocks and animals. Mamas could heal fatal diseases, make it rain, and even travel great distances. Although in most stories only one side comes out on top—the shaman or the lama—there are several that explore the complexities of having faith in more than one faith and the struggles people face when trying to find common ground. The common conviction in the concept of punishment as an accident and the accompanying winner’s regret helped to alleviate these tensions.
As mentioned before, ethnic Khamnigans murdered Chödör’s father, the zaarin Bud. This is the narrative of his life. When Bud was in possession of the shaman Chimeg, his mood would fluctuate between humorous and sorrowful; for example, he would weep over his death at the age of 44 from injuries sustained in a confrontation with a Tibetan monk. What really gets my attention in this narrative is not the conflict between the shaman and the lama, but rather the guilt felt by Bud’s parents over the lama’s death. It took two centuries for the Mongols to convert to Buddhism. During that time, there was resistance from the populace at large and eager acceptance among the khans and nobles (Bawden 1968). Even within a family group, disagreements might arise due to individuals’ varying degrees of Buddhist observance, as shown in the tale of Bud. Identity is not a static concept but rather a fluid, disputed, and creative process, as Bud’s narrative demonstrates.
It was in 1911 when the Qing Dynasty was deposed by the Chinese Revolution. Although the new Chinese Republic altered its governmental stance toward Mongolia, it maintained its assertion that the country was an inherent part of China. The goal of the Chinese Republic was to include Mongolia into China, in contrast to the Qing government’s strategy of dividing the country. And thus, resettlement programs superseded the centuries-old regulations that had divided the Mongols and the Chinese. The new legislation mandated the usage of the Chinese language across Mongolia, and it also encouraged Han Chinese to settle there and marry indigenous women.
The growing military presence of the Russians and Japanese in the Far East prompted China to respond with a direct colonial policy. China chose to create a unified Chinese country that comprised Inner and Outer Mongolia as a buffer against the possibility of intervention in Mongolia and Manchuria by these two nations. A surge of anti-Chinese feeling and a subsequent independence movement in Mongolia were precipitated by these events. On December 1, 1911, once the new temporary government was recognized by the Mongolian nobility, they declared independence from China and established a theocracy governed by the Bogd Khaan.
The Buryats were among the many local populations that were being drained by Russia’s internal and foreign conflicts. Many Khori and Aga Buryat families fled Russia’s civil conflicts between 1900 and 1925 and settled in the regions of Khenti and Dornod in northern Mongolia. Some Buryats, especially from Selenge province, also settled in the Ulan-Ude and central parts of the Russian-Mongolian border.
As the turmoil in Russia extended throughout Mongolia, the Buryats’ plans to flee were thwarted. During this time, a large number of Buryats started participating in politics. One example is the 1919 pan-Mongolist movement, which sought to unite Outer Mongolia, Buryatia, and other Mongol territories in Russia and China under a single empire. This movement was supported by certain members of the Buryat intelligentsia as well as anti-Bolshevik Russians and Japanese. The Russians acknowledged the sovereignty of Outer Mongolia under Chinese suzerainty in the 1915 Tripartite Treaty, which Mongolia, China, and Russia all signed. It was planned that the Buryats would stay in Russia and the Inner Mongols would stay in China.
Outer Mongolia’s autonomy was jeopardized by pan-Mongolism in this setting. The movement’s Buryat leaders also “planned to deliver Outer Mongolia to the Soviet Union in return for both more favorable treatment of the Buryats and the advancement of pan-Mongolism,” according to other sources. Soviets saw Buryats as rebels, while Outer Mongolians viewed them as traitors. There was a suppression of the pan-Mongolist movement.
The Buryats’ political standing in both Mongolia and the Soviet Union was further tarnished by subsequent events in the country. Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, a czarist general who had lost the Russian Civil War to the Red Army, came to Mongolia in 1921 with the intention of forming an empire in Central Asia with the last forces of the White Army. The local Russians had abused the Buryats, therefore they banded up with Ungern-Sternberg. Threatened with imprisonment, he enlisted a large number of Buryats from Mongolia in his army.
The unanticipated impact of Ungern-Sternberg’s entrance on Mongolia’s destiny was profound. Initially, Bolshevik Russia was uninterested in Mongolia. However, the Soviets opted to defend their revolutionary triumph in Siberia and the Far East when Ungern-Sternberg threatened them with an invasion from his stronghold in Mongolia. After the Mongolian army defeated Ungern-Sternberg and instituted socialism, the Soviet Union dispatched soldiers to help.
After the Russians beheaded Ungern-Sternberg in 1921, Outer Mongolia split apart to become the sole Mongol republic, the Mongolian People’s Republic (MPR), three years later. Despite the fact that the Sino-Soviet Treaty of 1924 acknowledged Chinese control over Mongolia, the country really maintained de facto independence. Stalin retaliated against the Buryats who fled to Mongolia, even though most of the Buryats stayed in Russia.
Immigration to Mongolia by the Buryats infuriated Stalin. Their decision to enlist in Ungern-Sternberg’s army had particularly stung him, and he insisted they go back to Russia. Stalin appears to have given in to pressure from Mongol authorities who pushed for Buryats to be granted dual citizenship. The Buryat people were granted dual citizenship by an agreement reached on September 5, 1924, between the Soviet Union and Mongolia. Approximately 20,000 people from 5,243 families became citizens of Mongolia between November 18, 1924, and March 1926.
In Mongolia, the Selenga, Hentii, and Dornod provinces in the north and northeast are home to the majority of Buryats. Ulaanbaatar is home to the brightest minds among the Buryat people, and many of them hold influential positions in government. Dornod province’s Bayan-Uul district came into being in 1922, and in 1929, a chapter of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) was created to oversee educational and political gatherings.
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The Soviet Union’s claim to Mongolia was bolstered by subsequent political developments in northeastern Asia throughout the early 1900s, including the 1930s border dispute between the Soviet Union and Japan. Soviet dominance in Mongolia was further solidified by the 1928 triumph of the Chinese Nationalists against the Communists.
Stalin wanted to make sure Mongolia wasn’t a hotbed for counterrevolution, while Mongolia relied on the Soviet Union to help it resist Chinese influence. Despite not trying to settle territorial disputes and recognising Mongolia’s independence, the Soviet Union maintained political dominance in Mongolia through its influence of the MPRP’s governing elites.
Numerous choices about Mongolia’s destiny were before the nation’s authorities in the early 1900s. Even though atheism is a hallmark of state socialism, the Mongol rulers initially had no plans to eradicate Buddhism. According to Rupen (1979), the new communist administration in Mongolia was persuaded of the significance of decreasing the authority of the clergy and the upper class only when the Soviet Union started pressuring the Mongolians to do so.
Reeducation, propaganda, and lama taxes were the first peaceful steps, but by the mid-1930s, the government had turned to physical force.30 Not only did it impact the common people, but it also had an impact on the elite, the Buryats, and the intellectuals.